TALBOT1197

Malvern Wells ¹
July 11

My dear Henry

I received your letter a few days ago & find by what you say in it that you never received mine which I directed to Venice I wrote it last May & I gave you a full account of all the grand doings on Kits ² birthday & of the feasting, bonfires firing of guns, fireworks & flags & [illegible] & in which I also thanked you for the music you were so kind as to send me & what pleasure it gave me to be remembered by you, for I do not like to be forgotten by any body I have once known. We are here at Malvern where we have been staying a fortnight & I suppose will continue about 3 weeks longer & then we shall go to Cheltenham for a fortnight to drink & then Home again - I believe we shall go into Dorsetshire in the Autumn - I am glad to say dear Charry ³ has gained strength from this reviving air, she & I walk up the hills every day once & I go again with Sir Christopher ⁴ I am his constant companion, & a few days ago I walked up to the top of the Herefordshire beacon with him just 6 miles there & back & the next day we went to the Worcestershire beacon & were caught in a violent storm when we were quite on the top & not a bit of Shelter near - so we were obliged to weather it as well as we could & of course got well drenched - We enjoy ourselves extremely on the top of these hills, I think the air is so delightful, it is as good as drinking a dram, but I think the distant view of my own dear country contributes as much as the air to make me feel light & gay. We see many of our mountains the Brecon Fans, the the Blorenge the Skirrid views & the sugar loaf mountain rising in the distance far above the Herefordshire hills - We have the pleasure of Aunt Charlotte's & M^r Lemon's ⁵ company, they are here, living in M^rs Barry's Cottage not far from us, the name of our house is Knoll Lodge a Swiss cottage with a great deal of shade about it & very pleasant but very small, so small that Mary ⁶ sleeps at Aunt Charlotte's house there being no room for her here here. We came up Neath Valley to Merthyr & then to Abergavenny the road between these two places is beautiful. You gradually descend from the tops of the mountains above Merthyr into a ravine, very high mountains of on each side, barren at the top but towards the bottom cloathed with beeches growing wild & hanging over a mountain stream that rushes over the rocks at the bottom, on one side of this cleft in the mountains the road winds down & at one place turn you see a bridge of on the other side [ill. del.] over a narrow deep Cleft, about 200 feet perpendicular from the bridge to the stream below it - Charry took 2 or 3 views of different parts of the Cwm so I hope when you come to Penrice ⁷ again you will see some likeness of this beautiful place, though they give but a faint idea of the terrific depth of the ravine, birds-eye views are so very difficult to take. the whole of the journey was lovely & the weather so fine we saw Ragland [sic] Castle to perfection -

Jane ⁸ is coming here, for a few days in her way down into Dorset at [sic] Glamorganshire - Kit is at Cowes preparing for a sailing match - My Uncle Charles & my Aunt Susan Fanny, Tom & Edward ⁹ are at Cheltenham - Mary Anne Shakespear ¹⁰ is at Cowes Aunt Harriot ¹¹ & suite there too - Uncle Harry ¹² gone down to Melbury ¹³ - I think now I have given you a tolerable account of the proceedings of the different branches of the family & have fulfilled my duty & added to my pleasure by telling you of all that interests us as I think that rather likely to interest you too - Pray give my love to Caroline & Horatia ¹⁴ & tell Caroline I hope she will draw something for me as well as Emma ¹⁵ though I cannot draw landscapes in return for her but I will paint something as well as I can -

Goodbye dear Henry

I am your aff^te coz
Isabella Talbot

W. H. Fox Talbot Esq^re
Baden Baden
Radtstatt
Allemagne
[illegible]
Germany
July 13^th